Montgomery County has been asked to help rescue the bankrupt Valley Forge Convention and Exhibit Center, county officials said yesterday.

Under the plan being discussed, the county commissioners would study creation of a convention authority to buy and operate the center, according to Paul B. Bartle, commissioners chairman.

Bartle said he met yesterday with the directors of the Valley Forge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to discuss the issue. Bartle said the bureau suggested the takeover idea last summer.

The Visitors Bureau, an arm of the county government, promotes tourism and markets the convention center. The center has been "open since 1985, and each year the business has grown," said Bettina McGovern, executive director of the visitors bureau.

But, since the center filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last March, the bureau has found it harder to attract potential customers to it. "It's an uncomfortable situation," McGovern said. "

Thus, the bureau asked the county to help fund a study that would look at ways to create an authority to buy and operate it.

Bartle said he thinks a county authority could operate the center profitably with proper management.

But Commissioner Rita Banning said she is concerned about the county getting mired in an operation about which it knows little. "I would be very apprehensive," she said yesterday.

McGovern said it may also be possible to convince the state to put up funds to help buy and upgrade the center. The state has helped finance convention centers in Erie, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, she noted.

The bureau would determine the scope and cost of the feasibility study, McGovern said, and then recommend to the county commissioners that the study be done.

The study would probably cost more than $50,000, said Bartle, and would be paid for by the county, the Visitors Bureau and possibly Upper Merion Township, where the center is located.

The study would also consider how to replace the loss of tax revenues to Upper Merion if the property would become tax-exempt through county ownership, said McGovern.

The convention center, built and owned by Montgomery developer Leon Altemose, also includes two hotels, an office center and a dinner theater.

Altemose has the property for sale. McGovern said it also is possible Altemose may be able to reorganize the center's financial condition and get it out of bankruptcy court. "It's premature to say what's going to happen," she said.

She added that the study may recommend against takeover of the center by an authority.